EpicSki posting guidelines: Points to understand before participating.

Posters are allowed a great deal of flexibility in their posts, but must be respectful of other members. We reserve the right to moderate any member who violates our Terms and Conditions, these Posting Guidelines, or is a negative disruption to our community. Moderation may include editing or deleting posts, communications to correct inappropriate behavior, time-out, or banning. EpicSki.com is a privately owned and operated forum.

Where there are gray areas in the guidelines outlined below, the moderators and administrators will work together to determine the best solution for a dispute on either a series of related threads or a specific thread. Reasonable contribution from the membership is welcome but not mandatory for a decision to be made.

EpicSki policy questions and discussions are generally welcome. Moderators and administrators will endeavor to answer questions about policy, including the "why" behind it. Concerns are always noted, and often discussed at some length both among the staff and membership (especially Supporters). However, do not start a thread or make public posts in any forum for the purpose of expressing displeasure with the actions of a moderator or administrator without having first directed your comment or concern to him or her personally (or another moderator or administrator if the member does not feel comfortable dealing directly) by using private messaging or e-mail. Treat the moderators and administrators with the same courtesy you would any other member.

Ad hominem attacks of forum members will not be tolerated. Argue all you want against any idea brought up in the forums but don't attack any person's character for voicing an arguable idea. Be open-minded and try to help foster meaningful discussion. Yes, meaningful discussion is possible if everyone respects each other's unalienable human right to have their own viewpoint.

EpicSki will strive to maintain a work-friendly and family-friendly environment. EpicSki moderators and administration reserve the right to judge content to be inappropriate and to request members to self-moderate or to remove offensive material, and will deal with chronic violations as a disciplinary matter. If you feel a need to post a Not Safe for Work (NSFW) disclaimer with your content, don't post it here. The bad post button is available for members to alert moderators to a potential problem.

Respect the privacy of fellow forum members. Hopefully this will not be an issue, but do not post personal information or pictures of a member without that member's approval. Disputed information will be deleted.

Profanity in thread titles, usernames, and other profile fields is not allowed. Excessive and or unnecessary use of profanity in forum discussions (again, at the moderators' discretion) is not welcome. While the occasional use of foul language may be tolerated, a number of profane words are blocked. The fact that a word is not blocked does not mean it is acceptable for use.

Spamming will not be tolerated. Spamming can be defined as posting excessively with no content, posting with commercial intent, or posting solely to redirect traffic to another site. This also includes pyramid schemes or other opt-in advertising services. Do not use the forums for personal gain or to boost your post count. Spamming will result in an immediate ban from EpicSki without warning.

Members are allowed to have custom signatures appended to the end of their posts. This is a privilege that allows members to show a bit of their personality to the community on the forums. Members who choose to use this feature must do so in a respectful and mature manner. vB tags are allowed in signatures to add a bit of style. However, members should limit signatures to three lines of text or less and should include only small images. Members should not use the vB size tag to make the signature text larger. Links are allowed in signatures only for Supporters, and commercial links must be approved by EpicSki staff. The signature privilege may be revoked if the signature violates any of the conditions described in the Terms and Conditions and these Posting Guidelines.

Be descriptive with the title of new threads. Do not start a thread with an ambiguous title like "Guess what..." or "Help!" and then use the text portion of the post to explain. Do not give threads misleading titles in an attempt to gain more views. Also, give your post a headline. This courtesy is especially appreciated in the more highly trafficked forums.

Threads and posts with no original content will not be allowed. Do not post a link or quote an article while contributing little to nothing of your own. Links are often lost over time. Try to post enough content that your thought has some meaning on its own. One word replies are generally unhelpful and can make an otherwise useful thread hard to read. While posting a thumbs up or smiley emoticon can show agreement, it doesn't add much. Try to contribute more if you post.

Do not create new threads that duplicate existing, recently active discussions. Please read the forum listings, use the search facilities, and read relevant topics beforehand to keep from duplicating existing thread topics. Threads with common topics may be merged at the discretion of the moderators/administrators.

Do not register multiple posting accounts for any purpose without the direct approval of an administrator. This offense will result in a ban at the IP level. If you lose your password or have other issues, use the Contact Us form to request assistance.

Members are not allowed to use anonymously-accessible, unprotected, "disposable" e-mail systems such as dodgeit.com, mailinator.com, tempinbox.com, etc. for creating and using accounts at EpicSki. Members also are not allowed to post account login information on publicly-accessible web sites such as bugmenot.com. Furthermore, members must maintain their registered e-mail account so that moderators and administrators can reach them.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to achieve thoughtful, informative discussion is for our members to write thoughtful, informative posts. EpicSki is not a real-time chat forum. Each of us has time to compose, edit (before and after posting), find or research links, and count to a hundred if we're angry. Let's use that time wisely!

Please note that the EpicSki.com Posting Guidelines represent a living document that from time to time may be modified in order to best serve the needs of the community. Any modifications made to these guidelines will be at the discretion of the moderators and administrators.